Quote

I do have fun writing, and a long time ago, I told myself, 'You got to have fun at this, or it'll drive you nuts.'

Elmore Leonard

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Elmore Leonard
Age: 87 †
Born: 1925
Born: October 11
Died: 2013
Died: August 20
Author
Film Producer
Novelist
Prosaist
Screenwriter
Writer
New Orleans
Louisiana
Dutch Leonard
Elmore John Leonard Jr.
Time
Nuts
Drive
Fun
Told
Writing
Long

More quotes by Elmore Leonard

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I once saw Dizzy Gillespie at a live show, and it made me want to go home immediately and start writing.
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I'm very much aware in the writing of dialogue, or even in the narrative too, of a rhythm. There has to be a rhythm with it … Interviewers have said, you like jazz, don’t you? Because we can hear it in your writing. And I thought that was a compliment.
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Skip the boring parts.
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I don't judge in my books. I don't have to have the antagonist get shot or the protagonist win. It's just how it comes out. I'm just telling a story.
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There's nothing like work to take your mind off your worries.
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Everyone has his own sound. I'm not going to presume how to tell anybody how to write.
Elmore Leonard
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My most important piece of advice to all you would-be writers: when you write, try to leave out all the parts readers skip.
Elmore Leonard
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It doesn't have to make sense, it just has to sound like it does.
Elmore Leonard
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I focus on characters as individuals with attitudes and write each scene from a particular character's point of view. That way, even narrative passages take on the character's sound. I don't want the reader to be aware of me, writing.
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Don't worry about what your mother thinks of your language.
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A man can be in two different places and he will be two different men. Maybe if you think of more places he will be more men, but two is enough for now.
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I don’t think writers compete, I think they’re all doing separate things in their own style.
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Try not to write the parts that people skip.
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I still read Hemingway. I still read his short stories because they're so good. He doesn't waste any words.
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What do you tell a man with two black eyes? Nothing, he's already been told twice.
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My most important rule is one that sums up the 10: If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.
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I want the reader to know what's going on. So there's never a mystery in my books.
Elmore Leonard
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I think any writer is a fool if he doesn't do it for money. There needs to be some kind of incentive in addition to the project. It all goes together. It's fun to sit there and think of characters and get them into action, then be paid for it. I can't believe it when writers tell me 'I don't want to show my work to anybody'.
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I try to leave out the parts readers skip.
Elmore Leonard
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I won't read a book that starts with a description of the weather. I don't read books over 300 pages, though I'll make an exception for Don Delillo.
Elmore Leonard